We recruited 38 emergency department healthcare providers (doctors, physician assistants, nurses and medics) to receive a total of two separate IV canulations - one in one arm and the other in the other. One IV canulation would be pretreated with Ethyl Chloride topical anesthetic (the study product) and the other would be pre-treated with a placebo (sterile water in an aerosol can). Both the participants and the nurses, PAs and medics who placed the IVs were blinded as to which was the Ethyl Chloride and which was the placebo. After the IVs were placed the participants were asked to rate the pain of IV canulation on a scale of 1 to 10 for each of the pre-treatments, to state which one they believed to be superior in reducing the pain of receiving the IV, to state whether or not they would like the intervention that they rated as superior to be used on themselves and finally how likely they were on a 5 point scale to incorporate the intervention they rated as superior into their future practice.
